A new face on the grid at this weekend's USGP at the Circuit of Americas in Austin Texas, is New Zealander youngster Brendon Hartley, who joined in the official FIA Press conference on Thursday.

Brendon was called in to replace Pierre Gasly at Toro Rosso, as he contests the Super Formula series this weekend, but Brendon doesn't care for the reason why, he is just thrilled to be finally making his Formula One debut.

As for what the future holds in terms of a full time drive, Brendon has no news, all he wants to do right now is get in the car and race and do his utmost this weekendโ€ฆ

Brendon, 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours winner, welcome to your grand prix debut. Tell us, who called who, what part did Porsche play in it all and where is it all leading?
Good questions. Actually, when it was announced that Porsche would stop endurance racing in LMP1 for next year, I called Helmut Marko and I said: โ€˜Look, I'm a different driver than I was 10 years ago, I've learned a lot, and if there is ever and opportunity I am ready.โ€ He didn't say much, he just said he got the message, and three months later he made the call. This happened very quickly. I didn't know about it much sooner than the press did. It's been quite a whirlwind of a couple of weeks to arrive here. Yeah, I'm pretty relaxed at the moment, all things considered. Really looking forward to getting out on track. Obviously I've had quite a bit of time to chat to the engineers, to go through some data, a little bit of time on the sim. But I'm looking forward to free practice one and see how comfortable I feel and working towards the race start on Sunday, which is a big moment for me, so yeah, really excited.

When you say you are a different driver from 10 years ago, what was wrong with you as a driver 10 years ago that made it go wrong with Helmut and how have you changed?
I guess I wasn't ready. I had some success in the early days, I won the Formula Renault championship, I became the reserve driver, had my first F1 test at 18 years old and I guess I just didn't deal with the pressure. I stopped enjoying it, I wasn't happy; I was pretty young and away from home. When the F1 dream, so to speak, stopped in 2010, I picked myself up, I found endurance racing and yeah, I have learned a lot from that experience. Being in the LMP1 programme, a high-profile category, where there is a lot of pressure, probably not that dissimilar to Formula One in some ways, in that respect, in development of the race car, and working with team-mates has been great. I'm a lot stronger than I was back then, basically. I wasn't ready at 18 years old. I like to think I'm ready now. I'm not very prepared for this weekend, I haven't the car, I haven't driven a single-seater since 2012, but I like to think that Porsche LMP1 has hopefully prepared me well.

What have the team have said to you about their expectations for this weekend and longer term what may come after this weekend? Actually, there have been no expectations set. To be honest, some of the team members I'm just meeting for the first time today, and yesterday during the seat fit. I made the seat yesterday. Nothing has really been said yet. Obviously I want to do the best that I can. I'm trying not to put to many expectations on it. In some ways I'm underprepared but obviously I want to do the best job I can. Nothing has been said by the team, and also, going forward nothing has been said yet.

Looking at this track, in 2013, I go back to your event in the Grand Am endurance race. How fitting is it to have this F1 start here and how critical is it to come here to a place where you have all this track time?
Yeah, it's definitely nice coming to my Formula One debut at a track I know very well. Like you say, it dates back to 2013 and I think I've driven here almost every year since. Actually, as a racing driver, learning a track, when you have enough experience, it can happen quite quickly. I think learning the car will be the bigger challenge. The big tyres, the big downforce that these Formula One cars have at the moment, obviously they are setting lap records at every track they go to. Yeah, I'm going to have a bit on my hands tomorrow and the track is only a small part of it. But yeah, looking forward to it.

What have the team told you about the chances of you continuing for the rest of the season?
Not much, actually, so I'm trying to just focus on the weekend and see how that goes and see what comes from it.

Have you asked Sรฉbastien Buemi or Mark Webber for some advice on how to drive in Formula One?
Yeah, I've obviouslyโ€ฆ all the friends I have in the sport I've been asking for a bit of advice. I saw Mark this morning for breakfast. I saw Daniel, who is one of my best buddies as well, Daniel Ricciardo, I saw him two nights ago, I asked him for all the advice I could manage to get out of him regarding tyres. Yeah, some of it is going to come down to, like I say, driving free practice one, seeing how I go and then asking some of those questions. A lot of them aren't really relevant until I've actually experience the car.

There's been a lot of expectation, speculation, that you were heading to Indy Car next year. Does this weekend change your plans there? What's your future look like.
Nothing's been confirmed for me for next year, so yeah, like I said before, I haven't asked too many questions and have just been focussed on trying to do the best I can this weekend because I've got a fair amount on my plate to figure out and do a good job. So, I'm trying not to think further forward. But yeah, I was looking at Indy Car and I still am. Nothing confirmed for next season yet.